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UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engine

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 1:33 pm
by FloridaMike
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/08 ... 407156386/

Microwave thrusters work but we do not know why.

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 2:04 pm
by Chris Peterson
FloridaMike wrote:http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/08 ... 407156386/

Microwave thrusters work but we do not know why.
Definitely a hint of some very cool physics there.

While the engineering application is interesting and potentially useful, what I find most interesting is the possibility of this thing opening an observational window on the quantum vacuum, of its use as a probe to test some of our most fundamental theories about the nature of the Universe.

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 5:10 pm
by geckzilla
Sure it's not just another faster than light neutrino experiment?

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 5:12 pm
by Ron-Astro Pharmacist

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 7:16 pm
by neufer
Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:33 pm
by Beyond
Probably something as simple as 'organized' microwaves, interacting with the 'unorganized' microwave background.

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:11 pm
by neufer
Beyond wrote:
Probably something as simple as 'organized' microwaves,
interacting with the 'unorganized' microwave background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-photon_physics wrote:
<<From quantum electrodynamics it can be found that photons cannot couple directly to each other, since they carry no charge, but they can interact through higher-order processes. A photon can, within the bounds of the uncertainty principle, fluctuate into a charged fermion–antifermion pair, to either of which the other photon can couple. This fermion pair can be leptons or quarks. Thus, two-photon physics experiments can be used as ways to study the photon structure, or what is "inside" the photon.>>
http://nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full/10.1139/p11-144#.U-FCKkBgGSo wrote:
Photon–photon scattering: a tutorial
Yi Liang, Andrzej Czarnecki
Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1, Canada.
Published on the web 9 January 2012. <<After Dirac proposed the theory of negative energy solutions to his equation, it was realized that photons can interact with other photons by polarizing the vacuum. Photon–photon scattering was qualitatively considered in this context by Halpern, and its cross section, for the case of photon energies that are low compared to the electron mass, was determined by Euler and Kockel in 1935. If the energy of each of the colliding photons is ω in the frame in which their total momentum vanishes, the low-energy differential cross section is:
  • Image
where α ≃ 1/137 is the fine structure constant and m is the electron mass.

[For visible light traveling through the CMBR we find a mean free path of:]
  • λ ≃ 7 × 1052 ly.
In other words, the CMBR is a rather transparent medium at visible frequencies.>>

More at: http://nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full/10 ... -FCKkBgGSo

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:07 pm
by Beyond
neufer wrote:The post above
I have no idea what neufer wrote, or why he wrote it. :no:

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:26 pm
by neufer
Beyond wrote:
neufer wrote:
The post above
I have no idea what neufer wrote, or why he wrote it. :no:
So...what else is Neu :?:

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:55 pm
by Chris Peterson
Beyond wrote:Probably something as simple as 'organized' microwaves, interacting with the 'unorganized' microwave background.
The nature of the resonant cavity is such that there can be no electromagnetic interaction between the inside and the outside. Assuming the effect is real, it presumably isn't electromagnetic in nature.

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:46 pm
by Beyond
neufer wrote:
Beyond wrote:
neufer wrote:
The post above
I have no idea what neufer wrote, or why he wrote it. :no:
So...what else is Neu :?:
That's something that only you neu fer sure. :yes:

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 2:49 pm
by FloridaMike
Beyond wrote:... neu fer sure ...
:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 5:16 pm
by geckzilla
I just wanted to write a post about how I've seen this repeatedly called "bad science" in a somewhat disturbing way. Stupid things make headlines and get misinterpreted and misreported by the media all the time, so it's understandable that this thing would be met with harsh incredulity. But looking at who did this work, it seems like the dismissal is coming too quickly. An inexplicable result does not necessarily mean it was bad science. Well, anyway, it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 7:55 pm
by Chris Peterson
geckzilla wrote:I just wanted to write a post about how I've seen this repeatedly called "bad science" in a somewhat disturbing way. Stupid things make headlines and get misinterpreted and misreported by the media all the time, so it's understandable that this thing would be met with harsh incredulity. But looking at who did this work, it seems like the dismissal is coming too quickly. An inexplicable result does not necessarily mean it was bad science. Well, anyway, it will be interesting to see how it turns out.
At this point I'd say it's simply an interesting observation that appears to have been substantiated by several respectable labs. How can an observation be "bad science"? Any actual scientific explanation largely still needs development.

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 9:11 pm
by geckzilla
I only know that I am having no difficulty finding rebukes of the research. I'm using Twitter to take a social pulse on the matter. That sounds stupid. Here, just have this link.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%22bad%20s ... e&src=typd

Re: UPI: NASA scientists successfully test 'impossible' engi

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 10:31 pm
by geckzilla
Interesting blog post by Corey Powell on the matter. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/outth ... -agI2PG8uc